Colby - Flanders Homestead; 77 East Main Street – Sunapee Harbor

This house, built by Stickney on property owned by Elijah Peasley in 1836, became the homestead of Isaac Colby in 1855. Since 1871 it has been in the Flanders/Osborne family for more than 100 years. It is currently owned and maintained by the Sunapee Harbor Riverway, Inc. and opens in the summer as a gift shop.

This house located near the head of the river and on the edge of the lake was built in 1836 for Elijah Peasley, a Blacksmith, by Horance Stickney, a master carpenter. Prior to 1842 the house was a local tavern. Over the next 30 years it was home to several local mill owners, including Christopher Cross who built the harbor sawmill, and Isaac Colby a partner in the threshing machine fabrication shop.

In 1871, the Colby homestead was sold to Mrs. Triphena Flanders with a deed stating that this property was for “her sole use and shall not be in control of any future husband.” For the next 113 year this was the home of the Flanders family. In the 1870s the two Woodsum brothers who ran the steamboat LADY WOODSUM boarded here.  

At that time, summer visitors were on the increase thanks to the Woodsum’s steamboat passenger service and new hotels being built. William Flanders took advantage of his location and rented rowboats – the first boat livery on Lake Sunapee. In 1888, he was the dam keeper for the Sunapee Dam Corporation. In 1889, he constructed a building next door as a restaurant and in 1890 built a large stable across the road from his home for a horse and carriage livery business (today’s Museum). William Flanders died here in 1911. 

The property was inherited by his son, Will W. Flanders Jr. who lived here with his wife Flora for 30 years. Will Flanders worked as a steamboat captain, was an owner of the Ben Mere Inn, and developed the Lake Avenue shore into cottage lots. When Will died childless in 1941, the property went to his nephews, the sons and grandsons of his sister, Emma Osborne.

In 1949 Fay Osborne bought this house from his uncle and cousins. Fay had a summer home near Dewey Beach and was a research engineer who patented the paper used in tea bags. In 1984 Barbara and Ron Sullivan bought the house from Fay’s estate and established the Wild Goose Gift Shop. In 1987 a developer bought the house and other harbor commercial properties. They demolished the original attached barn and in 1990 lost all their harbor properties to foreclosure.

Harbor properties under threat of foreclosure were rescued when the Sunapee Harbor Riverway, Inc. was formed by community members concerned about the future of the waterfront. Funds were raised and the Harbor Riverway was able to purchase commercial properties from Sugar River Savings Bank in 1991. Today the Riverway continues to lease this building to local merchants and maintain its historical presence.

Barbara Bache Chalmers, Sunapee's Historic Buildings & Places Vol. 1 (Sunapee Historical Society, 1918 & 1919)